1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to methods of assessing food authenticity and quality and, more particularly, to an apparatus for carrying out such methods utilizing the acousticomechanical impedance (AMI) characteristics associated with the properties of drying droplets of multi component liquids.
2. Description of the Related Art
The problem of rapid evaluation of food authenticity and quality is very topical today. Recent achievements in the infrared and mass spectroscopy, gas and liquid chromatography, nuclear magnetic resonance and microsensor engineering have been used to solve this problem; While experimental data are processed by the methods of modern mathematical analysis, obtaining necessary information usually requires the use of costly equipment and the involvement of highly qualified personnel. Moreover, estimation of the usefulness of a product is often based on determination of one or several components and cannot serve as a complete characteristic of its authenticity and quality.
Consequently, a need has been felt for providing an apparatus and method based on two phenomena: nonlinear dynamic processes in drying drops; and, a possibility of recoding these processes by means of a device developed for this task.